Psychotherapy and the Self-contained Patient

Book excerpt: Leading psychotherapists present a broad range of theoretical, philosophical, and clinical perspectives on the self-contained person who seeks therapy. With numerous enlightening case studies, they explore the characteristics of the self-contained patient--often a bright, dedicated, hardworking, and successful person who has decided to be self-reliant and to achieve without needing or acknowledging help. The experts also examine the provocations leading self-contained persons to seek therapy. This authoritative volume addresses the intricacies of working with the self-contained person, who is often competitive and ill at ease with experts, and proposes successful interventions for treating the ever-challenging and provocative self-contained patient.